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Nurses Can Benefit from Improved Time Management

Published on Wednesday August 4th , 2010

Nursing can be an especially demanding career, and on a busy shift some nurses might scarcely have time to take a break to eat or sit down. Most nurses have a long list of things they are responsible for and have to learn how to make quick decisions about patient care and well-being. It is precisely because nursing is so demanding and high-paced that it becomes incredibly important to learn how to manage your time at work effectively to reduce stress and ensure you provide quality care.

Improving your time management can make you a much more efficient nurse, one that will be able to attend to the needs of more patients in less time. This doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice patient care and bedside manner, only that you can complete the basic care they need in a way that takes less time. In some cases, it may give you more time to speak with and get to know those that you are caring for, in others, knowing how to do things quickly could mean saving a life.

Of course, better time management doesn’t just help patients. It can also be a big stress relief for those working in a high-paced environment. Knowing how to prioritize your tasks and keeping track of your to-dos each shift can make a big difference in lowering your stress and helping you better manage what you need to get taken care of in any day or night of work. Less stress not only means a better experience while you’re at work but can also help you arrive home to spend time relaxing or socializing with your family without feeling completely burnt out and exhausted.

If you’ve never been particularly good at time management there is no better time to start than now. Even a simple to-do list can help you start understanding how to better utilize your time at work. As a nurse, you’ll also want to make sure that you create a system for prioritizing those tasks on your to-do list so the most important things always get taken care of in a timely manner. It will undoubtedly take some getting used to when you’re first using a new system, but eventually it can become like second nature and you’ll be cruising through the things you need to get done more easily.

Being a nurse naturally comes with some stress and difficulties on the job, but you don’t have to make it any harder than it needs to be. With a little planning and prioritizing, you can better manage the time you have at work, allowing you to provide better care for yourself and your patients alike.